EDITORIAL Contributing more to science Scientists have a crucial role in educating the public about the importance of science if we are to have any hope of facilitating future innovation. A few notable scientists have taken this duty to heart, altering their career tracks to promote science and education. ruce Alberts left research and teaching in 1993 to become the century, it is unclear whether it will continue to make the ‘education president’ of the US National Academy of Sciences. investments needed to make sure it remains competitive. In the 12 years of his tenure, he worked to improve US The US faces a crucial future skills gap in science and technology. http://www.nature.com/nsmb B science and math education, understanding that public servants in In 2004, the US National Science Board ranked the US twentieth in government with scientific and technological expertise are essential the world for the percentage of 24-year-olds with college degrees in intermediaries in conveying scientific advice to politicians. natural sciences or engineering. The National Academy of Sciences Alberts asked his colleague Harold Varmus to serve on an advisory stated, “We fear the abruptness with which a lead in science and committee that studied the future of research funding. Despite his lack technology can be lost — and the difficulty of recovering a lead once of administrative experience, Varmus was suggested for the directorship lost, if indeed it can be regained at all.” of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a post in which he served In a 2005 Science interview with Jeffrey Mervis, Bruce Alberts said from 1993 to 1999. During that time, he initiated many changes in both “It seems likely to me that China or India will become the dominant intramural and extramural research programs, recruited new leaders for scientific power. They take science seriously, their young people are a number of important positions at the NIH and helped to initiate the hungry to learn it, and they have such large numbers of people.” Nature Publishing Group Group Nature Publishing five-year doubling of the NIH budget. Varmus also turned out to be an Chinese educators talk about their “new national strategy” to make 7 adept public promoter of basic scientific research. China an “innovation country” so that it will advance “into the rank 200 In 1999, Tom Cech became president of the Howard Hughes of innovation-oriented countries by 2020”, says Shang Yong, China’s © Medical Institute (HHMI). Together with Gerry Rubin, HHMI vice vice minister of science and technology. president, he is overseeing the creation of the Janelia Farm Research While China is pouring money into its universities, it is not possible Campus, focused on developing technologies applicable to biomedical to produce creative thinking merely by demanding it. Instead, one problems. Inspired by the collaborative atmosphere at the Medical must provide an open environment where creativity and innovation Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK), can flourish. “One thing we know about creativity is that it typically and at the Bell Labs (US), Janelia Farm will make space and resources occurs when people who have mastered two or more quite different available to visiting scientists, thus nurturing scientific exchange. fields use the framework in one to think afresh about the other”, said Ronald Plasterk, well known in the field of small RNAs, recently left his Marc Tucker, who heads the National Center on Education and the lab to join the government in the Netherlands as its education minister. In Economy in the US. so doing, he will provide an invaluable link between the government and But what makes one place more conducive to innovation than the scientific community, acting as a translator between two very different another? Certainly money invested in science and education is an cultures. Although this may seem like an unusual step, it makes sense important part of the equation, but other factors are equally critical. given Plasterk’s long interest in politics and the communication of science The quality of education the next generation receives is essential to to the public. Since 1999, he has been writing a weekly newspaper column give them the knowledge and skills needed to drive innovation. That (in de Volkskrant) and providing televised commentaries (on the show can be achieved only with higher levels of success across disciplines. Buitenhof). He also coauthored the Labor party’s election platform. The ability to recruit and keep the world’s most talented people is also In an interview with Alison Abbott from Nature, when asked how of key importance. By not giving visas to leading foreign scientists to improve scientific quality, Plasterk answered, “Ask yourself why so and thus sending foreign students to other countries, the US has many top physicists, including three Nobel prizewinners, ended up in severely limited the potential for scientific exchange in this country. Leiden 100 years ago? Or at the Cavendish laboratories in Cambridge? Finally, it is important to create an environment where people are There is no blueprint for quality — top scientists will go where they encouraged to think creatively and where risk-taking is rewarded. can work best. We just need to provide sufficient funding to allow The good news is that the race to become a vibrant and exciting place centers of excellence to emerge from within the community. And there to do science is not a zero-sum game. Many nations can improve their is in fact more money for research foreseen in the government plan.” competitiveness, and the ones who flourish will be those who develop the If it is true that in the future, the best scientists will go best broad-based education systems and recruit highly talented and creative where they can do the best work, where will that be? Although people from around the world to do the most innovative research. In that the US has enjoyed a comfortable position in the twentieth regard, we all have our work cut out for us. í NATURE STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY VOLUME 14 NUMBER 5 MAY 2007 353.